The police have been using bike marking sessions, educating cyclists, high-visibility patrolling, surveillance and undercover policing.

During the course of Project Cycle Ops, police have security marked and registered over 40,000 bikes on BikeRegister.com.

Cutting down on stolen bike sales on Gumtree

TfL and the police joined forces with BikeRegister on a marketing campaign aimed at encouraging people to get their bikes security marked and registered, and insist on proof of ownership and bike registration numbers before making a purchase. In addition, they worked with Gumtree, the UK’s number one online classified website, to help get this message out to the public; as a result, cycle security pop-up messages are now seen on the site by anyone looking to buy a bike, along with updated guidance and a dedicated cycle security blog.

Police have also worked behind the scenes with the site to catch the bike thieves in the act as they attempted to sell bikes and bike parts online – cutting off one of their marketplaces and making it much more difficult for criminals to make money from this kind of crime.

11% drop is a good start

The cracking down on stolen bike sales on Gumtree, the police marking sessions and the tactics used to reduce this crime are all very positive.

I’m sure I’d be reporting more impressive numbers today, if the sentencing for serial bike thieves was harsher.

Bikes remain an easy and profitable target for thieves. Cyclists have a role in bringing these numbers down. For a start, everyone should have their bike registered on http://bikeregister.com/ which is free. You should also either buy their marking kit or head down to one of the police marking sessions.

I might have misread the press release… I believe they have 2000 bikes in storage which are unclaimed by their owners. The way it was phrased I thought they’d uploaded pictures of all the bikes they have unclaimed. Perhaps its a gradual thing?

I think resources like this are just wonderful. 🙂 I think more and more communities all around the world should add resources like this to their city websites so cyclists can find their stolen bikes. Stealing my bike would be like stealing my car! I spent quite a bit on it so I’d be very upset, haha! Great post!

Oh terrific. The police have 2,000+ bikes in storage and only put up photos of 35 – not catalogued or otherwise searchable. Would it not help to tag the photos??

In my experience the police are “criminally” negligent when dealing with recovered bikes. If you know they should have a bike (because you handed it in as abandoned) and you claim it after 30 days they tell you that they no longer have it – they sold it or gave it away. When you kick up a fuss (write to the Chief Super) they go and magically find it under a pile of other bikes. Gives no confidence that they’ll treat other crimes any differently. They’d much rather that you don’t involve them, thank you.